September 2012

This is the month of the beginning of the fall weather for Idaho. We can feel it in the mornings on our way to the YMCA at 6:00am. It is dark and cold. The VW has a limited time before being put to sleep for the winter months ahead.

We have had great weather for the State Fair in Blackfoot, Idaho. Julia, Woody, Val, Dawn and I went down on Seniors Day and enjoyed the exhibits, animals, and food. We met Daryl Peterson and his wife Barbara while in the commercial building. He has Lou Garrick’s disease and in poor health. It was such a treat to see him and he had saved photos and news articles of my dad.

The week of the fair was very busy for Dawn and I. We are ordinance workers in the Idaho Falls temple. The first week of September is designated additional Saturday assignments, so we completed 5 shifts in just over one week. We normally go to the temple at 4:30am on every Tuesday morning. Add to that two Saturdays back to back, we were very busy.

This is the time of year we get ready for the cold months. The hot tub has been drained and covered. The camp trailer has been cleaned and shrink wrapped and covered with a tarp for winter. Also, I cleaned and covered the bar-b-que until next spring. The Toyota and VW are going into storage soon.

One unusual event occurred this past week. Our ward party was held at Kate Curley Park. A genuine Luau with Kailua pig and all the pineapple you could eat came together Friday for an outstanding party. Even the weather cooperated. It was remarkably warm, just like Hawaii.

Our garden is hoping for one more week of warm weather just to ripen the tomatoes. We are planning to can salsa from our garden.  We have canned picked beets and bread and butter pickles from our garden. We have restocked our food supply for the coming months. The drought in the Midwest will drive up the prices on grain and meat products this year. We really need moisture for the crops and to extinguish the forest fires burning throughout the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Unbelievable damage has occurred to our forested areas in the western part of the states.

Fall is here following Spud Day at Shelley, Idaho. Every year there are more and more people waiting in line for baked potatoes. There must have been over 8000 people wanting to get a potato to eat. We left early because there was not room to stand. When I was young it was such a wonderful day to spend with friends. We competed in the potato picking contests, went to the movies, and of course, enjoyed the famous Idaho baked potatoes.

Fortunately, we met Daryl and Barbara Peterson at Spud Day among the hoards. He had several pages of history on my father, Benton Carl Russell. Also, he gave us many photos of Benton and a history of his drowning. It was all very appreciated.

This month closes with memories of warm and wonderful days. However, each day was filled with smoke from the fires in the mountains near Stanley and Salmon Idaho. Many fires were started by an electrical storm in June and have burned throughout the summer. Not only in Idaho but also California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon, the fires have raged throughout the Northwest. We are hoping and praying for rain to come. It would be the only hope of extinguishing the wildfires.